Where would the software industry be without maintenance income? In 2009, it was the difference between a very tough year and unmitigated disaster as maintenance was the one source of revenue that went up when other streams went down.  (Is there such a thing as a mitigated disaster?) And I think the importance of maintenance and support for midmarket companies represents one of the challenges of moving from the software license and maintenance combination for producing revenue to the subscription model for paying for Internet-based products. Read more...